National Weather Service investigation finds no evidence of tornado in northern Maine

FORT KENT, Maine — A damage survey conducted by an employee of the National Weather Service office in Caribou turned up no indication that a funnel cloud spotted between Wallagrass and Fort Kent on Sunday evening was a tornado.

“While there were a few snapped trees indicative of straight line winds, no evidence was found of damage due to tornadic winds and thus the determination is that this was not a tornado,” according to an email released Monday afternoon by the Caribou weather office.

A video shot by Wallagrass resident Denise Corriveau from her home showed what appears to be a funnel cloud moving slowly near the Route 11 corridor south toward Fort Kent.

On Monday morning, Paul Fitzsimmons, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Caribou, said experts would look for any damage caused and at the patterns of the damages.

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“We will look to see if the damage indicates rotating winds and how strong those winds were,” Fitzsimmons said.

Based on radar imagery taken at 8,000-feet elevation,“There was some weak rotation on the radar,” he said. “But what makes it tricky is it was far from the radar at the lowest elevation we can scan.”

On Monday, Corriveau said she and her husband noticed the winds picking up around 6 p.m. Sunday, and when her husband heard a noise, she said they looked outside toward the north.

“We saw pretty much what you see on the video,” Denise Corriveau said. “It all happened so quick, and I ran for my cellphone to video it.”